Regional Jail Location Upsets Area's Residents

July 28, 1989|By CHRIS OSHER Staff Writer

SUFFOLK — Representatives of several civic leagues throughout the city demanded Thursday that the City Council hold a public hearing before it proceeds with a plan to build a regional jail in the Elephants Fork area.

"We're fighting for the life of our community," said Percie L. Stagg, president of the Elephants Fork Civic League. "We've fighting for the very safety of our lives."

"I've been in this community all 64 years of my life, and now this type of stuff is coming in," said Mattie Eley. "We don't have a decent playground for the children, and now they're building a jail here instead."

The jail opponents met in a church near the proposed site, which is at the Route 58 bypass and Route 10. Residents of the area are calling for the city to find a more isolated site for the jail.

Also attending the meeting were representatives of the Olde Towne Civic League, the Saratoga-Philadelphia Civic League and the Oakdale-Pierce Park-Magnolia Civic League.

Stagg, a former New York corrections officer, said it is inevitable an inmate would escape from the jail at some point.

"You could walk to that prison within three to four minutes," Stagg said. "You know how long it would take for a prisoner to reach your back yard if he escaped."

City officials defended the site selection, City Manager John L. Rowe Jr. saying the proposed 295-cell jail would be built on a 50-acre site and would have a large buffer zone. He said the jail would have to meet strict state requirements on security. The city's current jail is located in much more of a residential area, he said.

"When people break out of jail, they don't run next door," Rowe said. "They try to get as far away as they can."

William Johnson, city attorney, said he was not yet sure whether the city would be required to hold a public hearing on the matter. A conditional use permit already has been granted for a local jail, and the land already has been rezoned.

Suffolk, Isle of Wight County and Franklin have moved rapidly to become the first communities eligible to receive millions of state dollars for a regional jail. The state has agreed to pay 50 percent of the construction costs.

Already the three communities have adopted resolutions in support of the project. Southampton County officials so far have decided not to participate but have reserved the right to join later. The city must send the resolutions and design plans of the regional jail to the Department of Corrections within the first week of August to meet a state deadline.

At a meeting Tuesday, Vice Mayor S. Christopher Jones said the city should not build the jail unless officials were sure the site offered enough space for expanding to an 800-inmate jail in the future.

The people attending Thursday's meeting said that many inmates would be unsafe, what with Elephants Fork Elementary School nearby.

Councilman Andrew B. Damiani agreed, saying he would vote to put a regional jail in the area only if a cap were put on the number of inmates. Damiani said a public hearing should be held before the council voted on an agreement with the other communities.

"We ought to make sure we don't rush too fast and forget to cover all our bases," Damiani said. "I think it'd be unfair to put a large facility in Elephants Fork."

Jones pointed out that the city has held a public hearing on the site, though at that time it was proposed as a city jail, not a regional one. "We are doing something that makes sense to the taxpayers and does not impinge any more on the people living in that area," he said. "Any decision on locating a jail is a tough one, a difficult one. But we considered those things when we went through the public hearing process."